


Lakeshore

by starlightwalking



Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Tauriel Goes to Erebor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-01
Updated: 2017-01-01
Packaged: 2018-09-14 01:56:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9152461
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starlightwalking/pseuds/starlightwalking
Summary: Tauriel faces a decision on the lakeshore: will she leave the destruction of Smaug behind and return to Mirkwood, or will she follow Kíli to Erebor?





	

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this as the beginning to a long story, but I never got around to writing more than the first chapter, so I thought I'd post this by itself.  
> The first part is mostly a narration of the lakeshore scene, but the second part changes the story from canon. This is such an interesting AU, and I'm kind of sad I never followed up on it, but I'm busy with other things. Oh well. Enjoy what I did write!

Tauriel watched as the girls ran around, searching and crying out for their father. Tilda held Sigrid's hand fearfully. Tauriel hoped they could find Bard, though she was doubtful the bowman had survived the dragon's attack. He had slain Smaug, but she had seen the belltower fall, flaming, into the lake.

The girls would recover. They had each other. Tauriel could see the four dwarves out of the corner of her eye, pushing a boat back into the lake. She felt a pang in her heart. Kíli would be leaving soon, along with the others. She had followed him this far, against Thranduil's orders and against all reason. She had made his fight her fight as well.

But she could not follow him any further. The mountain was not a place where she belonged, nor a place where Legolas belonged. She could tell her friend wished to return to their kingdom now that the dragon's storm was over, and she did not desire to leave him all alone.

Besides, after last night... Tauriel shivered thinking of it. She had saved Kíli, using elven lore taught to her by her mother when she was young. She had watched as he returned from the darkness, and remembered his whispered, unbelieving words: _You cannot be her. She is far, far away from me. She walks in starlight in another world..._

But Tauriel had not been in another world, she had been right there in front of him, hearing every word. She could have dismissed what he spoke, turned aside and forgotten him. But the way he had spoken to her in the dungeons, so earnest and kind and willing to listen to her... She could not deny she felt connected to him. She had left the Greenwood to save him. She had done that, but instead of answering her questions, he had only given her cause to ask more.

_Do you think she could have loved me?_ Kíli's words echoed in her ears. Caught up in the moment, she had taken his hand, let her heart flutter and grow weak. She felt the ghost of his warm, gentle hand in hers, she remembered how weightless and hopeful she had felt in that moment...

But before she could answer him, the dragon had come. That had changed everything: suddenly it was life or death. She had taken charge and rushed everyone out, saving their lives. There had been no time.

She heard Kíli's voice footsteps behind her and looked down at him. "Tauriel," he said, meeting her gaze.

"Kíli, come on! We're leaving!" his brother called out to him. All three dwarves looked at him in irritation, urging him to help them. Kíli ignored them, staring up at her.

Tauriel looked down. "They are your people. You must go." She turned to walk away, trying to not look at his mournful expression. She had left him behind, her heart aching at the thought of being parted from him, when he turned back around.

"Come with me," he offered her breathlessly, his eyes shining. She stopped in her tracks, turning back around to face him. "I know how I feel, I'm not afraid! You make me feel alive."

A light shone in his eyes. He wanted her to come with him. She wanted to go, to cast aside everything she had known before and follow him to Erebor. But Legolas...and Thranduil, her kingdom...she could not abandon them. Thranduil was already furious with her, she did not want to make things worse.

"I can't," she said, turning away. It pained her to say that, to know she needed to leave, but she had to. She would not be welcome in Erebor, anyway. Thorin Oakenshield hated elves; he was notorious for it. She did not fit among his people.

"Tauriel," he said gently, reaching out and touching her arm. " _Amrâlimê_." He spoke the word softly, tenderly. Her heart skipped a beat as he said it. He spoke in a language foreign to her, but the meaning translated from the way he said it. _I love you._

She looked up at him. "I don't know what that means," she lied. She couldn't let him know how she felt, it would only hurt him more when she left. He loved her...

He smiled, his face lighting up like the sun, seeing through her facade. "I think you do," he murmured.

Did she love him? She had followed him to Esgaroth impulsively, listening to her heart over her head. She remembered what he had said: _You make me feel alive._ He made her feel alive, too. It was because of him that she had defied Thranduil's orders. If he had never wandered into her life she would never have gained the courage to fight for her beliefs. He had opened her eyes to the outside world, proving her right. The other peoples of these lands mattered. _He_ mattered. He mattered to _her_.

She _did_ love him.

She stepped forward, a smile finding a place on her lips, when she heard footsteps behind her. She stiffened, recognizing those movements. It was an elf who approached.

"My lord Legolas," she called out in Sindarin. She could feel him behind her. She spoke his title, trying to distance him from herself, a lowly Silvan elf. This was not the time for him to interrupt.

Kíli looked up over her. Legolas stood behind her. The dwarf glanced up at him jealously, then back down. Tauriel cursed internally. Kíli must think there had been something between them. There wasn't, as far as she could tell. Thranduil thought otherwise, but Legolas's loyalty to her, though deep, was purely platonic. She hoped.

"Take your leave of the dwarf," Legolas answered her, speaking in Sindarin. Kíli would not understand what they were saying. "You are needed elsewhere."

Kíli continued to glare up at him. Tauriel turned halfway, glancing at Legolas placatingly. On her other side, Kíli bit his lip and turned away, shaking his head. He thought he had lost her. Tauriel looked back at him, desperately wishing she could go with him. She could return to the Greenwood, if Thranduil would take her back, and continue to fight the endless fight of protection and retreat...or she could go with Kíli to a strange land she did not belong in. Whichever she chose, she would hurt either her dearest friend or her newfound love.

"Legolas," she whispered, watching Kíli's back as he stood, staring at the boat where his brother and companions waited for him anxiously, "must I go with you?"

"You cannot go with the dwarf," Legolas protested. "Tauriel—I cannot say I understand what you feel, for I do not feel it myself and never have. But if you go with him, this venture will end only in pain. My father will take you back, I know it. Come with me."

"I—" she began, but Kíli turned, and she broke off. He walked back up to her, reaching out his hand for hers. She hesitantly offered him her own. He grabbed it roughly, but reached forth his other hand and gently placed something in it. Before she could see what it was, he folded her fingers over the object.

Cupping his hands in hers, he looked up into her eyes. "Keep it," he murmured. "As a promise."

Her heart fluttered. She was undecided. Legolas expected her to come with him. Kíli had given up that hope. But she did not want to return to the Greenwood. Her heart told her to follow Kíli, to abandon tradition and mend the gap between their races.

He smiled one last time, then pushed her hand back toward her, walking away backwards, still looking into her eyes. He loved her, beyond logic and reason, and she loved him too.

At last he turned, wading into the water. The other three dwarves had already begun to row toward Erebor.

Tauriel opened her hand and let out a slight gasp. There in her palm was Kíli's runestone, given to him by his mother. His words in Thranduil's dungeons echoed in her mind: _My mother gave it to me, so I'd remember my promise._

_What promise?_ she had asked.

_That I would come back to her._

This was a clear message to her: _Come back to me, Tauriel._

She glanced at Legolas, her eyes wide. He looked at her gravely.

"I'm sorry," she told him. The dwarves had rowed further away. Kíli stopped for just a moment, looking back at her longingly. She met his gaze, then threw aside Legolas's expectations and raced to the water's edge.

"Wait!" she called out. "Kíli! I'm coming!"

Kíli broke into a huge smile. Beside him, Tauriel saw his brother's shoulders slump. The other dwarves stopped rowing, looking at Kíli in disbelief, but he eagerly began to turn the boat around. Tauriel's heart pounded in her chest, her rosy cheeks stung by the cold lake wind. She could barely believe she had agreed.

Begrudgingly, the other dwarves helped Kíli row back to shore. They had not gotten very far. Behind her, Tauriel heard Legolas step forward.

"Tauriel, please," he said softly, speaking in the common tongue now that Kíli could not overhear. "Come with me. The orcs I pursued out of Lake-town—they are not like the others. Their leader is Bolg, son of Azog—they come from a great orc stronghold to the north. We must find out what their plans are and go warn my father."

The boat reached the shore. Kíli jumped out, beaming, and grabbed her hand. Tauriel smiled down at him. He embraced her, much to her surprise. She gasped, then began to laugh.

"You'll really come with us?" he asked, looking up at her with wonder.

She laughed. "Of course. I will not abandon you, _meleth nîn_."

His eyes widened, and he blushed. "Tauriel, I...don't know what that means!"

She smirked, turning his words back on him. "I think you do."

"Kíli, we _must_ go," his brother urged him, still standing on the boat. "Bring your elf girl if you must, but they are waiting for us in the mountain!"

"I'm _coming_ , Fíli," he griped, letting go of her. He jumped back into the boat, holding out his hand for Tauriel to climb in after him. "My lady?" he offered, smiling.

"Tauriel..." Legolas trailed off. He placed his hand on her shoulder briefly, then let go. "I wish you luck, _mellon nîn_."

"And I, you, _mellon nîn_ ," she told him. "Thank you for helping me thus far. I hope to see you again."

He nodded, smiling, then stepped away. Tauriel turned away from him, taking Kíli's hand and climbing into the boat. The dwarves immediately began rowing again, eager to reach Erebor.

Tauriel glanced back at Legolas. He frowned as he watched her go, then turned around and walked back into the camp of the Lake-towners.

"Thank you for coming," Kíli told her.

"Yeah, welcome aboard," his brother grumbled. He tossed her an oar. "Now, I can't believe you're here at all, but since you are, you'd best pull your weight, m'lady."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Well met to you too, sir." She took the oar and began to row.

"It's Fíli," he said.

"Bofur, at your service," the dwarf in the silly hat said, nodding to her.

"Óin, at your service," the fourth dwarf said. He held a crushed ear trumpet to his ear in one hand, rowing rather feebly with the other.

"I am Tauriel," she introduced herself.

"We know," Fíli said shortly. "Come on. We're so close. Thorin's waiting for us in the mountain."

The dwarves began to row. Kíli cast occasional awed glances back at her, as if he couldn't believe she was really there. She answered him with a smile, but while she helped her new companions row, she looked up at the Lonely Mountain's solitary peak rising into the grey sky with unease. Trouble awaited her there. Thorin Oakenshield would not be pleased by her presence.

But Kíli was beside her, and that counted for something. She had made a life-changing, irreversible decision on that lakeshore, and though where this choice would lead her, she did not know, she did not regret it. A new path lay ahead of her, and Tauriel would follow it gladly.

**Author's Note:**

> ....and then they lived happily ever after. At least, that was the end plan for the long fic that I'm probably never going to finish, but you can interpret this any way you like. Thanks for reading!


End file.
